Modern Nature by Derek Jarman (1991)
Filmmaker, artist and diarist also found solace in the world around him, and it flourished under his hand even as his own future was uncertain. In 1986 Derek Jarman discovered he was HIV positive and decided to make a garden at his cottage on the bleak coast of Dungeness. While some perished beneath wind and sea-spray others flourished, creating brilliant, unexpected beauty in the wilderness.
Modern Nature is both a diary of the garden and a meditation by Jarman on his own life: his childhood, his time as a young gay man in the 1960s, his renowned career as an artist, writer and film-maker. It is at once a lament for a lost generation, an unabashed celebration of gay sexuality, and a devotion to all that is living.
